After dropping out of school, I chose to join a girls' band.

Side Story: A Trip to Hikami Mountain - Chapter Twenty: A Smiling Face in the Mirror

In the early morning, the soft sunlight shone through the gaps in the curtains onto the bed, and the warm light crept onto Hinasaki's face.

"Ugh...it's so hot..." Yue frowned and muttered, trying to turn over, but her body couldn't move.

As she gradually regained consciousness, she suddenly realized that she was being tightly hugged by two hands around her waist and chest.

After a moment of confusion, the memories of last night quickly returned to her mind—last night, Lixi, Taozi, and she slept together like this.

As a result, the situation in the mornings now seems to have become a little too intimate.

Yuexia subconsciously looked down and saw that Lixi's head was comfortably resting on her chest, breathing softly and occasionally murmuring in his sleep.

Meanwhile, Peach's hand had somehow slid from her waist to her thigh, pressing very close together.

"What...what's going on?!"

Yue blushed instantly, her heart pounded, and an indescribable embarrassment filled the room.

"Calm down... calm down..." Yue murmured to herself, trying to calm herself down.

She took a deep breath and moved slightly, trying to push the two of them away.

However, her slight movement caused Lixi and Taozi to move even closer to her without prior arrangement.

"No...don't do this..." Yue was on the verge of collapse, especially when she felt Momo's restless hand moving closer to a more dangerous place.

Just as she was at a loss, Lixi suddenly moved.

"Hmm... It's morning?" Li hope's voice was groggy and heavy with sleepiness. She looked up and saw that she was leaning against Yue's chest, and was instantly stunned.

Peach on the other side also woke up.

She opened her eyes and found that her hand was actually on Yue's thigh, and her expression instantly became extremely complicated.

"Moon... don't misunderstand, I definitely didn't mean to..." Peach explained nervously, quickly withdrawing her hand.

"Yue...are you alright?" Li hope looked at Yue, her tone tinged with guilt.

"It's nothing... I was just used as a body pillow by two people, what could possibly happen?" Yue sat up while straightening her clothes.

Just then, Ai Yin's voice came from the doorway, "Li hope! Xiao Yue! Tao Zi! Are you all awake?"

The three of them immediately became even more nervous, hurriedly checking the condition of their clothes, their faces still flushed.

"Everyone is downstairs waiting for you to have breakfast," Ai-yin's voice continued.

"Uh...we're up, Xiao Ai, we'll go down for breakfast in a bit!" Yue replied quickly, her voice tinged with unease.

"Then... I'll go down first?" Aine's voice gradually faded away with the sound of footsteps.

"Phew..." Yue breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that she had finally escaped the predicament outside.

However, the room remained awkwardly quiet.

"Peach...you go wash up first." Yue glanced at Peach and noticed that she was pretending to be nonchalant as she fixed her hair.

"Ah."

Peach understood what Yue meant, quickly grabbed a towel, and rushed to the bathroom as if fleeing, locking the door behind her.

Only Hinasaki and Ritsuki remained in the room, an indescribable tension filling the air. They sat silently, neither speaking, creating a subtle and oppressive atmosphere.

In the end, it was Lixi who broke the silence.

She lowered her head, her voice weak: "Um... Yue, I'm sorry, about last night..."

Hinasaki glanced at her, then gently waved her hand, reassuringly saying, "Tachibana... there's no need to apologize..."

Her voice was also very soft, as if she were afraid of breaking this fragile peace.

Then, Hinasaki Tsuki added in a low voice, her eyes somewhat evasive: "If I had to say something... I was wrong too."

She paused, seemingly recalling the events of the previous night, pursed her lips, and continued, "Actually, I should have decisively rejected Peach yesterday..."

Upon hearing this, Li hope looked up at her, her eyes filled with self-reproach and regret. She gently bit her lower lip, her tone tinged with helplessness: "I should have stopped the peach for you too..."

"It's okay... I should have realized Taozi's feelings for me a long time ago... If I had rejected her earlier, none of this would have happened," Xiaoyue reflected.

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In the restroom, the faucet was running, and water cascaded into the sink, the monotonous and continuous sound seeming to mask the turmoil in someone's heart.

The splashing sound of water hitting the pool echoed in the small space, then flowed silently down the drain, carrying away all the unspoken emotions.

Momoko Kurosawa stood in front of the mirror and simply washed her face with cool water. Water droplets slid down her cheeks, and the cool touch helped her regain some composure.

She looked up at herself in the mirror, and the slightly flustered look in her eyes made her feel unfamiliar and helpless.

Peach couldn't help but laugh self-deprecatingly, but the smile lingered on her lips for a short time, vanishing in an instant, leaving behind only a deeper emptiness.

Her fingers, still wet with water droplets, gently touched the cool mirror surface, leaving blurry streaks of water on her fingertips.

She slowly drew a smiley face on the mirror, her fingers sliding lightly, with a hint of hesitation and uncertainty.

The crooked smiley face in the mirror contrasted sharply with her real expression.

"That's more like it... Momoko Kurosawa." She murmured to herself, her tone carrying a hint of forced teasing, as if trying to convince herself.

But that smile only highlighted the helplessness in her heart.

She looked at herself in the mirror, her eyes still filled with panic and even a hint of disappointment.

She should have been happy to have spent that precious night with Li hope last night—an opportunity she had longed for—but her heart felt heavy, and she couldn't smile.

“I already got a night from Li hope,” her voice echoed softly in the small space, her words filled with undisguised bitterness.

"Why not smile when it's something to be happy about?"

The water continued to flow, washing over her fingers. The cold touch made her feel even more awake, but the bitterness in her heart remained.

She understood that even if she got this brief opportunity, it was just stolen time, and she would have to face reality sooner or later.

That feeling, a mixture of guilt and longing, was slowly eroding her heart.

She lowered her head and sighed softly, her fingers slowly sliding down the mirror, blurring the watermarks with her movement, and her smiling face was also stretched out of shape.

In the end, only the face in the mirror, still showing panic and helplessness, remained, reflecting her complex and unspeakable emotions.

Bonus Chapter: A Trip Up the Mountain - Chapter Twenty-One: Exciting Games (Part 1)

The pure black demon blood swirled in the glass before slowly falling into the cup, while white bubbles boiled and churned on the surface of the liquid, as if performing some kind of mysterious ritual.

"It's just pouring a glass of Coke! Why are you making it sound like some kind of supernatural ritual?"

Yue looked at Miaomeng helplessly, covered her forehead, and her tone revealed undisguised complaints.

Even more outrageous, Ai Yin and Miao Meng were seriously "acting silly".

Yue sighed helplessly, and a thought suddenly flashed through her mind.

She remembered that there was indeed a Roselia senior in her second year at Haneoka High School who also had similar "chuunibyou" tendencies. Purple hair, drummer...

"Hmm..." She glanced at Miaomeng's purple hair and muttered to herself thoughtfully, "Could it be that drummers with purple hair are particularly prone to becoming chuunibyou (a person with delusions of grandeur)?"

"The celebration won't start until tonight, and our luggage is still on its way. How about we play some games to pass the time?"

Miss Chuhua made the suggestion, and everyone looked at each other. Although they weren't very excited, no one objected either.

After all, they had already visited all the attractions on Mount Rishang, and what remained were only areas not open to the public and parts still under construction, so there was nothing new to them.

Thinking of the books about the horrors of Mount Hikami placed in front of the hotel, the girls lost interest in going on an adventure in the mountains. Finding ways to pass the time became the best option.

"There are so many of us? What are we going to play?" Hinasaki asked curiously, glancing around at her companions.

"With so many people, we can only play board games, right?"

"Although there are many types of board games, there aren't many left if you want twelve people to play them."

"I have a good idea."

Chu Hua borrowed twelve hundred-yuan coins, a piece of cloth, and a box from the landlady.

"This is a game I learned from shoujo manga—the coin game."

As Chu Hua spread out the cloth, she explained, "The rules are simple: write the questions on a piece of paper, draw a question one by one, and if you answer correctly, put the coin heads under the cloth; if you don't answer correctly, put the coin tails under. But remember, no lying!"

They exchanged glances, each with their own emotions flashing in their eyes.

"Isn't this a different kind of Truth or Dare? And it seems even more exciting because of the anonymity!" Miss Meow Dream and Miss Aine's eyes gleamed with mischief.

Momoko, Riki, and Lena seemed to be deep in thought.

Xiangzi, Hailing, Sushi, Xiaodeng, and others weren't very interested in it, but they still joined in to kill time.

Seeing that no one had much to say about the game, they decided to play rock-paper-scissors to determine the order.

The first person to draw a question was Peach.

Peach carefully felt around inside the cardboard box.

"So... first question... does anyone here have a crush on anyone here? I mean, a romantic partner, of course!"

Wow~

"That's a very bold question."

"Is it this big right from the start?"

After everyone had placed their coins, Momoko Kurosawa slowly lifted a corner of the cloth covering her.

Everyone's eyes were drawn to the coins that had been laid out.

The twelve coins lay there quietly, and the result was obvious: nine heads and three tails.

“It’s an odd number,” Hachiman Kairin said calmly, her eyes indifferent, as if the result did not surprise her.

[If it's an odd number... that means at least one person is in unrequited love.] Hinasaki silently speculated in her mind, her gaze involuntarily shifting to Kurosawa Momoko.

【Huh! Why is it an odd number? And there are nine heads!】 Miao Meng's mind suddenly went blank.

Even if all the Mygo stamps are front-facing, Ave Mujica still has at least three front-facing stamps! Aren't they all idols? How could that be!

Wait... no, if that's the case, it seems like I'm the only one being isolated!